Pregnancy & vaping

Smoking when you are pregnant, in the eyes of the society and close ones, means being the devil. The daily pression and the gaze of others can sometimes be painful. But in several situations, pregnancy was unpredicted or even undesired. But there, it is often too late for the pregnant woman to start her tobacco withdrawal. The deadline is set, they must stop smoking as soon as possible and as quickly as possible. Torture starts then. We know that time is very important in the tobacco withdrawal process, Than how to stop all cigarettes consumption from one day to the next when you are pregnant ?

SOVAPE, a French association whose aim is to promote the reduction of tobacco-related risks, has examined the question of vape for pregnant women. Because numbers are there : 54.2% of smoking women cannot stop smoking during pregnancy. We know that passive smoking for a fetus leads to problems that can become very severe as much for the future baby as the future mom : low weight at birth, double risks of miscarriage, 25% augmentation of premature birth and multiplication by 2 the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. But in our society, we prefer to stigmatize rather than seek to understand and support. Pregnancy in itself is a huge step in a woman's life as much for her body as for her psychological state : tiredness, anxiety, ... Those symptoms are the most seeable and the most known but add to this, stopping cigarettes and pregnancy becomes a true hell for the pregnant smoker. All of this with the guilty feeling when the attempts to quit fail. Then, SOVAPE sought to understand the links which could exist between electronic cigarettes and pregnancy.

The study took place over two years (2018-2019) in Coombe hospital in Dublin (Ireland) which take care of 8500 births a year. The maternity service's staff compared different requirements on three kind of pregnant women : non-smoker, smoker, and vaper. And the figures are undisputable : the average weight of a newborn is similar for the non-smokers and vapers women (approx.. 7.7lbs) when those of the smoker women's baby are about 10% lower (approx. 7.05lbs). for the other requirements (time from gestation to delivery, maternal morbidity, modes of delivery, perineal trauma, hemorrhage, preterm births), the statistics show that the figures for the vaper women are identical with those of the non-smoker women. So far from the values revealed for the pregnant smoker women.

To sum-up, of course we will never say it enough, the best cigarette is the one we don't smoke. Either traditional or electronic, during pregnancy it is better not to use any additive substance because nicotine is transmitted to fetus through blood exchange. But e-cigarette stays an extremely pertinent and strong way to quit smoking for pregnant women, even more when short time and the future baby's health are the key. Another advice we offer you, if you are in this situation, you can also turn to other method such as acupuncture or hypnosis to stop smoking without using any substitutes.

Here the link to the SOVAPE article, click here.

BAR à DIY's Team